stay tonight
by ifonly13
Summary: They last a month. Twenty-seven days until she gives in to him. To the constant teasing and innuendos slipped into conversations about paperwork and standard operating procedures. :: An AU based on a gifset by katigron
1. Chapter 1

They last a month.

Twenty-seven days until she gives in to him. To the constant teasing and innuendos slipped into conversations about paperwork and standard operating procedures.

Her keys fall to the hardwood as he crowds into her back, kicking the door shut. His fingers work at the buttons of her jacket, his palms hot against the thin fabric of her shirt while she stumbles backwards into the front table. He doesn't hesitate, skimming his hands down to her hips and lifting her onto the polished wood, her shoes dropping to the ground.

She uses the extra height to her advantage, angling his face up and pressing hard kisses into his mouth even as she fumbles to undo his starched shirt. A growl of frustration escapes when the edge of his badge still pinned to his chest scratches her palm and she feels his laughter under her fingers and tastes it in her mouth.

"Shut up," she hisses, scraping her teeth over the rough stubble of his jaw. "No way to treat a superior officer."

"Yeah?" he asks, lips soft against the curve of her neck, tracing a path down the deep v-neck of her shirt. "You gonna discipline me, Detective?"

The way he bites the syllables of her rank into her collarbone makes her hips arch up to collide sharply with his stomach. Her heels hook at the back of his thighs, her mouth sliding along his cheek. "Yeah," she breathes into his ear, seductive and suggestive. "All of our paperwork for a week."

"Shit, Beckett," he groans. "Not what I meant."

She laughs, sliding down off the table, hooking her fingers in the leather of his utility belt. "I know," she says, working at the buckle of the heavy belt until it falls off, the clatter of his cuffs muffled by her rug. Kate steps away from his questing fingers, tossing her shirt and dress pants over the cushions of the couch.

He trips over his shoes as he tries to get them off and chase her at the same time, scuffing the perfect shine on them and kicking one under her coffee table. She can't stop the bark of laughter from escaping as she leans on the doorframe to her bedroom, watching him run into a corner to get to her.

"You're gorgeous," he whispers into the silence of her hallway, still standing feet from her, his own shirt untucked and hanging open.

Kate hides her smile behind the cover of three fingers pressed to her lips. "You're not so bad yourself, Castle."

His chest puffs out with male pride as he sheds his shirt, leaving it in the hall as she moves into her room. He follows, looping an arm around her waist so his fingers can slide down under the band of her panties, pulling her back against him.

She gasps when he slicks two of his fingers over her, too gentle and far too soft. Too caring. It gives her too much of a chance to rethink this whole thing even as he laughs behind her at how her hips chase after his touch. She doesn't want to think.

Kate grabs his wrist, dragging him from behind her and starting to work at the zipper of his pants. The attempt to regain some of the control fails as soon as his hands span her ribs, coasting along her back until he finds the clasp of her bra. She falters, fingers curled into the elastic of his boxers, when he pushes the straps off her shoulders and ducks his head to bite at the curve of her breast, the navy cotton bra hanging from her elbows.

She arches into him on a whimper when his tongue traces over her nipple, his left arm banding low around her back as he lowers her to the bed. She forgets, in between yelling at him for making paper clip chains instead of listening to her explain how to fill in the form to send over to the district attorney's office and how he comes up with his own theme song while helping her canvass a neighborhood after that bodega shooting last weekend, that he has physical strength under the thick layer of humor and inability to be completely serious about anything.

Strength that he uses to his advantage now, his hips pressing her down into the mattress so she can feel just how badly he wants her and one hand tangling in her hair to hold her head down as he steals her breath with sharp little biting kisses. His other traces over the tense plane of her abs until his fingers nudge her underwear out of the way to brush over her clit, chuckling into her mouth when her pelvis jerks up.

He slides his fingers into her, swallowing her string of curses when he curls them as he thrusts, unhurried and as if totally unaware of how close she is already. Her breathless pants probably give her away because it takes less than three minutes for him to take her apart completely.

"Fuck," she gasps, wrapping her hand around his wrist at her ear, needing the quick anchor as her body settles back into the comforter. She feels his smile against her throat, a smug hum vibrating along her skin. When it turns into the scrape of his teeth along the curve of her shoulder, Kate shoves at his chest, planting a knee at his hip to flip him onto his back even as she hooks her thumbs into her underwear and tosses them off the bed. Kate straddles his stomach, damp thighs at his navel. "Do not even think about it," she hisses. "I do not need to explain why I have a hickey at work tomorrow."

Castle grabs her waist, his fingers still slick and wet with her, and uses his elbows to try and reverse their positions a second time.

She laughs, her knees braced on the bed so he ends up rocking to the side, growling low in his throat in frustration as she pushes his boxers down over his knees. "Nice try, rookie," she teases, rolling her hips down against his abdominals and making him groan.

Kate leans over him to get to her bedside table drawer, shuddering when he lets his lips touch the skin just under her right breast as she digs for a condom. She rolls it over him, her short nails scraping over the sensitive skin just to watch his hips jump and hear the rasp of his voice around her name.

She considers drawing it out, torturing him until he begs. Payback for his incessant chatter and constant teasing at the precinct. But his fingers squeeze at her waist until she knows there will be bruises and she gives in, lowering herself onto him.

The cocky grin disappears for the first time since he became her permanent shadow.

Kate rocks her hips forward, hands braced on his chest so she can feel him swear under her. She wants to make this last as long as possible but everything lingers at the surface from that first orgasm. He doesn't help when he settles his palm on the small of her back, tipping her forward onto her elbows with her breasts tight against his chest and the angle changes just enough that renewed fire licks up her spine.

He gets his hand between their bodies, other hand holding her in place as his thumb rubs hard circles over her clit until, with a choked cry, he pushes her back over. Even as she shudders, Castle flips them, shoves her knees up to her chest, and continues to thrust into her. When a second, bright wave hits her and she throws her head back into the pillow. She feels the sharp scrape of his teeth over her throat as he comes.

"Shit," he breathes out, rolling off her and flopping onto the other side of the bed. "That was amazing."

Her fingers curl into the comforter as she comes back into her body. She flicks at his side weakly. "Gotta clean up," she says.

The mattress dips as he gets up and she realizes after a second that he has no idea where her bathroom is. She shifts onto her stomach, head propped up by a hand. "To your left there," she directs, watching his ass as he heads across the hall.

When he returns, he crawls over her and slides under the covers. She can tell he wants to tuck her into his chest but he stays on the other side.

After he falls asleep, she turns to face him. Gone are the lines of worry and stress around his eyes and mouth, replaced with a quiet smile.

That frightens her more than the thought of being suspended for sleeping with the officer she should be training.


	2. Chapter 2

Kate wakes early, shutting off her alarm before it can break the silence of her bedroom. No new case or her phone would have gone off during the night so she takes the time to stretch, to linger for a moment under the soft sheets and against the warm body next to her.

Wait.

She rolls over, finds Castle's face smashed into a pillow, his fingers curled into the comforter and hair ruffled from sleep.

Fuck.

Kate stumbles while getting out of bed, pulling on a pair of underwear and tripping over his now-starchless pants, knocking a book off her bedside table onto the hardwood floor. The man in her bed groans and she freezes, watching as his eyes open, blinking into the light.

"Morning," he says, already drifting back into sleep.

She lets her head fall back against the doorframe. "Castle." He mumbles something into the pillow. "Castle," she repeats, injecting some steel into her voice this time.

He jerks upright, sheets falling to his waist. "What?"

"We need to go to work," she says, hating how it sounds. _We_.

"Should take the day off. I know the boss pretty well by now. Bet she'd say it's fine."

Kate shakes her head, pushing off the wall toward the hallway. "Not happening. Get dressed."

She hears him behind her, his feet skidding on the floor until he wraps an arm around her waist to drag her back into his chest. His lips trace a trail from just behind her ear to the slope of her shoulder until she shivers.

"We don't have time," she rasps, nails already digging into his wrist.

"I can be fast. Besides," he says, coasting his palm down over her stomach and under the elastic band of her panties, "you're already halfway there, aren't you?"

Her hips jerk forward, a low whine in the back of her throat when his fingers touch her.

"See? Won't take long at all."

Kate spins, her hands frame his face, and she uses her mouth to wipe the self-satisfied smirk from his lips. Before he has a chance to react beyond a startled gasp, she steps back and heads for the bathroom.

* * *

She kicks him out, his hair dripping onto the unbuttoned uniform shirt to stain the navy even darker and her body still buzzing from two orgasms he teased from her against the slick shower walls. He grins back at her while he waits for the elevator as she leans against the doorframe in a short robe and kinky waves of hair falling around her shoulders until the doors close in front of him.

Kate dresses quickly, rushing to make up for the time lost to his thorough distractions, tucking her pale pink blouse into her pants and finishing a cup of coffee so hot it burns the top of her mouth. When she reaches down for the strap of her bag, the metallic glint from under her coffee table makes her groan.

She stuffs his badge into the pocket of her jacket on her way out the door.

It burns a hole in the blazer as she waits for the subway, a too-heavy weight on the elevator up to the fourth floor of the precinct.

Any chance of a quiet pass-off disappears when her quick sweep of the bullpen shows not only Castle but also Ryan and Esposito all gathered around the whiteboard. She rubs her thumb along the beveled edge of the badge as she drops her bag next to her desk.

Only Castle turns to look, grinning and letting his eyes linger too long at her navel where he left a bright bloom of red after their shower. "Morning, Beckett," he says, bright and cheerful and doing nothing to hide the _I got laid last night_ tone creeping into his voice.

"Anything new come in overnight?" she asks, tugging a hand through her hair as she steps around to join the boys, wedging herself in between Ryan and Esposito.

"Actually, the uniforms we sent out canvassing had to quit early," Ryan answers, turning to grab the file from his desk. "Most of the building's residents had gone to sleep by the time we started knocking on doors."

She nods, taking in the careful organization of the board. "Okay. So, let's hold off on trying to get some witnesses until after six tonight. Greater chance of people being home after work. In the meantime, though, why don't I swing by Kimball's workplace and talk to the co-workers. You guys run financials and phone records to check for any of the usual inconsistencies."

Esposito and Ryan head back to their desks, already splitting up the workload and leaving her standing with Castle. The heavy awkwardness sits with them for a moment before she takes a deep breath and snags her keys off her desk.

"Coming, Castle?"

He smirks, following her so closely that his fingers brush her ass. "After you, boss. I'm a gentleman like that."

She fights to keep a straight face as she waits for the elevator.

Once the doors close, she turns on him. "You forgot something this morning," she hisses, batting away his hand as he reaches for her waist.

"Yeah. A goodbye kiss," he drawls, backing her up against the wall.

"No. No," she counters, digging into her pocket and slapping his badge onto his chest with a shove. "This."

His fingers curl around hers, pulling her close again and pressing a kiss to her scowling mouth. "And now I've got everything I forgot."

She glares at his back the entire walk to the carpool as he whistles and sends pleased grins over his shoulder at her. When she starts the car and pulls out of the parking lot, he immediately reaches to fiddle with the radio.

Kate flicks at his fingers even as she carefully merges onto Columbus Avenue. He frowns, opening his mouth to whine, but she silences the complaint before it can begin. "You need to be cooler about this. We both could lose our jobs if someone found out we're… whatever... and that is not going to happen. So take the cocky, self-assured attitude and shove it when we're at work," she demands. "I need you to focus and not keep picturing how I look naked."

"But I know how you look naked," he insists. "And what you look like when you c-"

"Shut up," she hisses. "Or you're never, _ever_ going to see that again and I will do everything in my power to get you kicked to traffic duty for the rest of your career."

"It is so hot when you're bossy," he mutters.

She swallows, ignoring the flare of lust in her stomach at the memory of just how hot _he_ is when he gets bossy. How his eyes darkened when he rolled her under him, pinned her hands over her head, and made her beg - _beg_ \- for him to just touch her.

The blare of a car horn behind her startles her back to the present, swerving back into her lane as Castle smirks in the corner of her eye.


	3. Chapter 3

The sex is amazing.

It helps that each time he buzzes up to her apartment after he finishes his paperwork and doesn't let them get to her bedroom before they end up naked on her living room rug, she feels a dangerous thrill of the forbidden.

She ignores that glaring sign that they need to stop as he rolls her on top of him, grips her hips, and breaks her apart, the pile of her Oriental rug burning her knees.

In the fuzzy haze afterwards, one of her throw blankets tossed over their bodies, Kate considers calling it off. Just turning to him and saying they can't do this anymore. How she can't focus at work because he touches her waist as he tacks a sketch up on the murder board and how she waits for the knock on her door that tells her he came by to make her scream his name all night.

He saves her from the awkward conversation by brushing his fingertips up her arm, tickling at the crease of her elbow. "I have to work tomorrow," he mumbles, fighting sleep. "You don't."

"I should get two RDOs with you as a rookie," Kate teases even as his fingers through her tangled hair keeps her body in that soft, boneless, post-orgasm state. "Don't worry, Castle. Ryan and Espo won't be too mean to you."

"You gonna kiss my bruises if they are?"

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Because she can already feel herself getting too deep into this coworker-with-benefits thing and, god help her, she doesn't really want to try to get out of it.

Kate deflects, pushing herself up to her feet and holding a hand down to help him to his. "Keep dreaming, Officer," she says, already halfway to her bedroom.

* * *

She half-sleeps through the alarm he set, curling tighter into the warmth he leaves lingering on her sheets as he gets up to dress for the day.

"See you later, boss," he whispers, pressing a kiss to her temple.

Kate rolls over, hiding her face in her pillow as her stomach turns.

It was a mistake to let it get this far. Early morning goodbyes and late nights gasping one another's names into pillows.

This is going to kill them.

* * *

By the time she gets up, it's nearly ten with the sun sneaking in around her curtains. She drinks her coffee sitting on the couch, her bare feet tracing the pattern of the rug, and tries to plan out how to do this. How this could even work now that professional has completely dissolved into too personal?

Kate dumps the rest of her coffee down the drain, watching as the dark liquid swirls around the obstacle of his mug from this morning.

Enough. She has a day to figure out how to break this off without ruining their partnership.

So she goes for a run, one headphone blaring Katy Perry, the other tucked around her bra strap so she can keep an ear out for her surroundings. An hour later, she sheds her sneakers and music for the carefully controlled movements of her longest yoga routine.

Just as she starts to settle into plow pose, her phone vibrates across the floor next to her mat. Kate torques her arm to answer the call without looking at the caller id, her last name breathless as she struggles to keep her breathing steady.

"Wow. Sexy."

She falls out of plow, her ass hitting the mat with enough force to make her grunt in surprise. "Fuck. Castle. Why're you calling? You're on duty," she gasps, fumbling for the remote to pause the DVD.

"I know, I know," he laughs, the sounds quiet as if he went and hid to make the call. "But I wanted to know if you'd have dinner with me. Like, a real date."

All the hard work of building up her defenses to let him down as gently as possible dissolves away when he asks and Kate doesn't think before responding. "Sure," she says, smiling toward the ceiling despite herself.

She can feel his joy even through the phone. "I'm out at five so I'll pick you up at 6:30?" he asks and already, the noise has picked up on his end as he moves back into the bullpen.

"Nothing fancy," she adds.

"No. There's this old school diner a couple blocks from the precinct. Great burgers and absolutely amazing shak-"

"Remy's?" Kate cuts in. "I love that place."

"Good. Great. I've got to get back. See you tonight, Beckett."

She drops the phone onto the yoga mat, her arm slung over her eyes, and she can't quite hide the smile that tugs at her lips. It can't hurt to have one date with him. One last chance to spend time with him outside of work before she ends this.

But when he knocks on her front door and she opens it to him, her heart stutters.

He looks good. Pressed pants and a crisp button-down and an armful of bodega flowers.

"Hey," he rasps and she realizes.

He's nervous.

Kate steps back, letting him into the apartment. It should be strange. Him standing next to the table he placed her on as he worked to undress her, his mouth leaving a hot trail down her chest. A first date coming after they've had sex for a couple of weeks.

"Thank you," she says, taking the flowers from him, cellophane crinkling as she finds a vase in the cupboard below her sink. "They're beautiful."

"Cliche if I say you're more beautiful?" Castle jokes, following her around her kitchen.

Kate wrinkles her nose, shaking her head. "Too cheesy. Way too cheesy," she insists, setting the vase of flowers on the coffee table, playing with the stems of the daisies and lilies. "You ready to go?"

"Absolutely," he says, holding his arm out to her. "Our burgers await."

They take the subway back up to the Upper West Side, dodging the tourists in the Times Square station with the ease of long-time natives and following each other's motions after weeks of working together, in sync even now.

On the walk from the subway station to the little diner, Castle snags her fingers, not meeting her eyes in case she takes her hand back from him. But it's nice, normal to walk down the sidewalk on a date with someone.

She tries not to think about how it's going to end.

The hostess recognizes them both, smiling as she leads them to a booth along the front windows, sliding laminated menus onto their table.

After the waiter delivers their milkshakes and takes their dinner orders, he visibly relaxes, smiling at her from across the table as she sips at her strawberry shake. The silence borders on awkward until Castle blows his straw wrapper at her face, making her smile as she crumples up the wrapper.

"This is kinda weird, right?" she asks, nudging his calf with her foot. "I mean, we've seen each other naked already."

"Yeah, kinda. But there's always other stuff for us to talk about, you know?" he replies. "Typical first date stuff. Like, what's your favorite color?"

"Purple," she answers too soon, the alarm bells going off already. Too personal, too close to becoming a relationship. "Listen, maybe…" She pauses, frowning at the formica tabletop.

His hand is warm when it covers hers. "Kate. What's wrong?"

"We need to stop," she says quickly, pulling her hand away from him and burying it in her lap. "I like you but we're going to get caught and I don't want to ruin your career because we got careless."

She watches the hurt flash through his eyes as he rocks back into the booth. "You're saying this was a mistake?" he whispers.

Kate takes a breath, meeting his gaze even as it kills her. Even as it tears her heart apart. "Yes."

He swallows hard. "Kate… Beckett, what…?"

The weight of his sadness hits her, heavy and unyielding and she can't carry his grief on top of her own. "I'm sorry, Rick," she murmurs, sliding out from the booth and, for the first time in years, runs from her problems.


	4. Chapter 4

She refuses to cry on the subway. No. She already had that New York moment and there is no way she's repeating that experience.

Still, her eyes sting as she half-runs back to her apartment, fumbling with her keys to get through the front door and to the elevator. Kate clenches her hands, holding herself together until she closes her door behind her and slides down the polished wood.

Shit, it hurts.

The hot press of tears finally wins out and Kate falls forward, burying her face in her arms. Except all she sees is his look of absolute shock and disbelief as she left him with two melting milkshakes.

By the time she manages to take a shuddering breath, the sun has set, her apartment dark. She pushes off the floor, dragging a hand through her hair and kicking her heels off into a corner. Her cheeks feel stiff with her dried tears.

The flowers on her coffee table make her stop short in the living room. Oh god, she has to work with him tomorrow. She can't hide from him forever.

"Kate," he calls, knocking loud enough for it to echo through her apartment. "Please."

She wants to ignore him but the sadness in his voice makes her turn. "What?" she sighs as she opens the door.

"I'm not giving up on this," he says, his voice firm and strong, no longer wavering with the aftershock of her confession. "We can make this work, rules be damned."

"How?"

He frames her face, pulling her into the hallway and kissing her hard. Her fingers curl at his wrists, halfheartedly tugging away from him, moving back into her apartment.

"No. You don't get to run again," he hisses, following her and kicking the door closed behind him. "We work, Kate. I can't stop seeing you outside the precinct," he admits, his kiss softer this time. Castle's head tips down, touching her forehead. "Don't make me walk away from this."

Kate shudders, a sob caught in her throat as she grabs his shirt at the waist. "No one can find out," she whispers. "Promise me no one finds out."

"I promise," he swears, walking her back toward her bedroom.

Their arms tangle as they fight to undress one another until Kate turns them around, pushing him onto her bed and climbing over him. Her knees squeeze at his hips as she leans over, her breasts pressing tight to his chest. Castle reaches between them, his thumb circling roughly over her clit causing her nails to dig into his shoulders and her pelvis to jerk into his. He uses one hand to guide her down over him, his palm at her tailbone.

Her mouth falls to his collarbone, teeth scraping over his skin. "This can't last," she gasps, already feeling the shiver of orgasm along her spine.

Half a dozen thrusts and she comes, hard and fast over him, and he follows with his fingers bruising the skin of her ass as he groans into her neck.

After, when they're both warm from the shower, Kate slips from under the covers and sits in the wide armchair angled under the bedroom windows. The moon paints a long line of light across his sleeping face and her heart twists.

It won't last. They're going to burn bright and flame out quickly and both personal and work relationship will be left in ashes.

Yet his eternal optimism, the fact that he comes back to her time and time again like a homing pigeon, infuses her with the shred of hope that brings her to her feet and crawling back into bed.

Might as well enjoy it before her partnership crumbles in her very hands.


	5. Chapter 5

They last three months.

As soon as they step into the precinct, they keep their hands off one another. He doesn't wink at her from the side of her desk as she walks out of interrogation with their suspect. She pushes him into the field, insisting that he needs to grow as a cop even when that means drawing his weapon and shooting their guy in the leg.

That night, though, she holds him on the floor of his bathroom as he grapples with taking the shot.

For ninety five days, it's near perfect.

And then they forget about inspection day.

When she walks into work and sees the captain going through their desks for contraband, for unfiled paperwork, her stomach drops onto the scarred hardwood.

"Beckett," Castle hisses, shifting over to her side. "Inspection day."

"Yeah," she responds, fighting to stay calm.

He grabs her elbow, ignoring their rule of no unnecessary touching at the precinct, and pulls her toward a corner near the stairwell. "I forgot to clean out my drawer in your desk," he confesses. "There are notes from you in there."

She knows. She saw them yesterday, all folded up into little squares, as she searched for her yellow highlighter. Notes about how fucking amazing it was when he forces her through another orgasm, her body weak with the first three. How she loves going down on him and watching his eyes roll back in his head.

"We have to tell him," Kate whispers. "Before he finds those post-its."

Castle's face falls. "It'd mean the end."

"What else can we do? He's going to find our notes and, at best, reassign you out of the precinct or we can come clean now and hope for leniency." She doesn't wait for his response, shoring up her defenses already against Castle and Montgomery and the fallout about to happen.

She grabs Montgomery as soon as he finishes his inspection of Perez's desk, nodding to Castle who hustles into the office and shuts the door behind the three of them.

"Sir," Kate starts, standing tall despite the rolling of her stomach. "I have been having a personal relationship with Officer Castle for about three months."

The captain frowns before his face storms over. "Castle, is this true?"

Kate gives him credit; Castle doesn't cower in the face of their captain's anger. "Yes, sir."

"What the hell, Detective?" Montgomery growls. "You know better. And you know what has to happen now, right?" He doesn't give her a chance to breathe before he continues to tear into her. "You are immediately removed of your training position with Officer Castle."

She recoils, trying hard not to glance to her right to see how Castle is handling the news. "Sir-"

"No, Beckett. This is going in your personnel file. However, Castle will continue to work here at the Twelfth. We will find you another training officer as soon as possible. You are both dismissed for the day." Montgomery sits, already moving on.

Kate ignores Castle's pleas to stop as she runs down the stairs to the lobby. She knew this was coming and now she wishes she hadn't been charmed into believing this could ever last. Because now it doesn't just kill her that there will be a dark spot on her file but with each subway stop on the way back to her apartment, she can feel her heart tearing apart.

The sense of absolute déjà vu settles over her as she shuts her front door. Hiding from what he means to her feels so very wrong now.

She gets undressed, throwing the hours-old work clothes into her hamper, and pulls on an oversized t-shirt she only realizes is one of Castle's after she tugs her hair from under the neckline.

Just as before, he doesn't wait long to show up, knocking loudly on the door and shouting her name through the wood.

In his t-shirt and her underwear, Kate answers him.

That's how they work. She runs, he follows. Her constant shadow.

"I can't do this right now," she whispers, her temple resting on the doorframe. "Because this hurts and I'm just too tired."

His fingers trail over her bare thigh as he walks past her into the apartment. She stays in the foyer, her hand on the door knob until she can gather the last of her strength to turn around and face him.

"You said I needed to know when to fight my battles," he starts, standing tall in her living room. "To know when to dig in and when to let it go. Well, I'm fighting for this. For you."

"Castle," Kate sighs, moving toward her bedroom. "We can't-"

He catches her wrist as she passes, pulling her to a stop in front of him. "No. We can. We can make this work. Just stop running from us, Kate."

Fuck it. Her heart aches and he makes her feel better so fuck it if this makes her ultimate plan all the more painful for them both.

She surges up into him, fingers curling into the lapel of his jacket. He stumbles back, his legs hitting the coffee table and nearly sending them both to the floor but they rebalance, stumbling toward the hall. Kate realizes what she's doing, leading the way, and consciously tries to shut it down; she puts her back to the wall near her bathroom, tugging him up against her.

He captures her hands, pinning them above her head. "Stay," he mutters, his mouth at her throat. She does, though as soon as he wedges his knee between her legs, she wants to score his neck with her nails. The sharp, familiar pleasure burns through her body and her knees buckle. "Kate, just stay."

Castle pulls aside her underwear, his fingers already slicking through her and curling up. A strangled sob escapes, her hips rocking forward into his palm.

"Please," she begs, already on the edge even as his hand at her wrists tightens to keep her still.

He stops just as she starts to shiver with the beginning of her orgasm, wiping his wet fingers on her thigh.

"What're you-?"

Castle silences her with a hard kiss, her head thumping back into the wall with the force. "Trust me," he pleads, hands already hooking at the sides of her underwear and yanking them down. "Don't run."

She lets her hands fall from their place over her head, fighting with his belt and the zipper of his pants. "I trust you. Partners," she groans as he kicks off his pants, letting them join her abandoned underwear.

So she lets him lead her into her bedroom, tipping her onto the bed. Kate sits up, barely having time to strip off the t-shirt before he presses his mouth to her and she nearly comes off the bed.

"Fuck," she rasps, still so very close to coming from his fingers in the hall. "Castle, I-"

He halts her from grabbing a handful of his hair, his shoulders at her inner thighs to keep her spread open and his hands holding tight to hers. "Wait. Trust me," he says, his lips catching on her clit and drawing a dark groan from her.

It doesn't take much to work her back up, her knees squeezing at his arms as she fights off the orgasm he doesn't want her to take, his name choked and sobbed into the afternoon light.

And once more, he leaves her, his mouth traveling over her stomach and across the curve of her breast until he settles his weight on top of her body. "Don't come," he whispers, tasting like her when he kisses her. "Not until I tell you." At her gasping moan, he smudges his lips over her cheek. "Don't run from me, Kate. Trust me. Stay and wait and be here with me."

When he slides into her, hot and hard and thick inside, she has to bite back the release that is right fucking there, all bubbling and waiting on the surface as his hips meet hers. But he doesn't hold her hands still this time and she takes advantage, fingertips pressing deep into the toned muscles of his shoulders, down his back and into his sides. Holding him to her as he drives his body up into hers and forces her eyes shut against the need to curl into a ball with pleasure waiting to happen.

Kate reads his tell, his thrusts getting sloppy and his forehead dropping to hers as he holds to his own control. She tips her head up, her lips and staggered breathing light at his jaw as she begs, "Now. Please, Castle, now."

He lifts up on his elbows, his right knee sliding up to keep her legs wide and the angle absolutely maddening for her, and looks down. "Promise me you stay. Even though this seems like it's falling apart, promise me you won't run anymore, Kate."

Impossible. It's impossible but with the promise of release at her fingertips, she gasps "Yes. I'm here" as she nods with her nose brushing his.

One rough circle of his hips and touch of his finger to her clit and she falls apart even as he continues to push into her, her teeth at his neck to quiet the built-up pressure in her body. It feels like a live circuit, a constant looping of pleasure as his lips slant down to her breast, his own teeth nipping at the sensitive skin one moment and his fingers coasting hard over her neck the next until he comes with her name in his mouth.

"See?" he breathes, still coming down with his weight heavy on her. "We're so good together. Don't let fear stop us from having a real chance at this."

After she manages to pull away from him, curling bonelessly into the warm cove of his body, Kate kisses the skin over his heart. Hoping against hope it'll protect him from what she's about to do to the tender organ protected behind those ribs.

She doesn't hear him as she fades off, the quiet whisper into her hair: "Because I kinda love you, Kate."


End file.
